Wondering if anyone knows the origin of the 80s trend where there's a slightly out of tune synth hit. The clearest example that illustrates what i'm talking about is around 1:31 in Bizarre love Triangle. It happens a few times in the song.

Any more examples that you all know of? What instrument does it, and how was it achieved?

The origin of the Orchestra Hit trend probably originates from the Fairlight CMI. Check out Yes' "Owner of a Lonely Heart" whose demo started as just an ordinary pop/rock song until producer Trevor Horn (and his team of studio musicians that would later become The Art of Noise) got hold of it and spiced it up with the Fairlight and LinnDrum.

I think New Order used the Emu Emulator sampler. Some of the Fairlight's samples made their way over to the Emulator library, but the hit in "Bizarre Love Triangle" has been modified or something. Not sure if it's an original Fairlight sample or even stock from the Emulator library.

This is spooky, I've just done a recreation of BLT for a band I'm in, I used the Emu library orch stab as it sounded just about right. From what I hear and read, BLT was done on a Fairlight and when I listened very closely to recreate this track, indeed all those stock sounds are there. It's almost like they just gathered up all the current most used sounds and did a montage!

When I found that orch stab in my emulator library I concluded as Mr Z says.. "..Some of the Fairlight's samples made their way over to the Emulator library,..."